Must-See TV
Army Of Darkness
ElRey
5 p.m.
A discount-store employee is time-warped to a medieval castle, where he is the foretold savior who can dispel the evil there. Unfortunately, he screws up and releases an army of skeletons. (tvguide.com)

In his last public appearance, Charlie Trotter described himself - surely not for the first time - as an "excellentist."

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Not being a foodie or restaurant aficionado per se, I have to say I'm most grateful to Trotter for bringing the phrase "nonsense upon stilts" into my life, even if the phrase originated from philsopher Jeremy Bentham.

Trotter was also one of our candidates to light the Olympic flame should the Games have been awarded to Chicago:

"Charlie Trotter will ignite the flame after adding bananas, butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon to the torch, along with a splashes of dark rum and banana liqueur. The torch will then be served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and garnished with powdered sugar and fresh mint."

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Of course, Trotter was known for behaving badly, which has been and will continue to be duly noted in the memorials and tributes. I can only say it's never necessary to do so to pursue excellence, and I hope the lessons the media draws and propagates from Trotter's life don't mistake this.

Rahm Emanuel vs. Betsy Hodges
The people of Minneapolis elected Betsy Hodges their new mayor on Tuesday night. How different is the political culture there than it is here? From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune'sendorsement of Hodges:

"She was working at a New Mexico home for the mentally ill in 1992 when three Los Angeles police officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney King, and the event sparked her interest in racial inequalities and public service. That led her to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she earned a master's degree in sociology before returning to Minnesota in the late 1990s."

There aren't petitions like there are here, unless you want to avoid the filing fee, which you can do if you "gather enough signatures of support," Star Tribunenotes.

"That would be the lesser of two numbers: either 500 signatures or 5 percent of the total number of votes cast in the town, ward or other election district at the last general election when that office was on the ballot (which would be 2,298 for a Minneapolis mayoral candidate this year). So in the mayor's race, a candidate would need to gather just 500 signatures."

Oh, Chicago, you live in a cave.

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By the end of October, Hodges had raised about $250,000 for what would be her winning campaign.